The bone-deep disillusionment of postwar film noir becomes a powerful vehicle to explore America’s racial injustices in Carl Franklin’s richly atmospheric Devil in a Blue Dress, an adaptation of the hard-boiled novel by Walter Mosley. Denzel Washington has charisma to burn as the jobless ex-GI Easy Rawlins, who sees a chance to make some quick cash when he’s recruited to find the missing lover (Jennifer Beals) of a wealthy mayoral candidate in late-1940s Los Angeles—only to find himself embroiled in murder, political intrigue, and a scandal that crosses the treacherous color lines of a segregated society. Featuring breakout work by Don Cheadle as Rawlins’s cheerfully trigger-happy sidekick, this stylish mystery both channels and subverts classic noir tropes as it exposes the bitter racial realities underlying the American dream.
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Supplements
- Audio commentary featuring Carl Franklin
- New conversation between Carl Franklin and actor Don Cheadle
- New conversation between Walter Mosley, author of the novel on which the film is based, and novelist and screenwriter Attica Locke
- On-stage conversation between Carl Franklin and film historian Eddie Muller, recorded at the 2018 Noir City Film Festival in Chicago
- Screen test for Don Cheadle
- Trailer
- An essay by critic Julian Kimble